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REARDAN--71 school superintendents, principals and athletic directors across Eastern Washington, including 20 from Lincoln County, have signed onto a letter to Gov. Jay Inslee, the Washington State Department of Health and the Washington State Legislature requesting the return of extra and co-curricular activities for all students, including sports. The letter was written as part an effort headed by Reardan superintendent Eric Sobotta and Davenport superintendent Jim...
CHENEY-The Eastern Washington men's basketball team (1-3) is in the win column for the 2020-21 season following an 80-56 drubbing of College of Idaho, an NAIA-ranked team, at Reese Court Friday. EWU was led by two Jacobs. Senior Jacob Davison and sophomore Jacob Groves scored 15 points apiece. Groves' brother, Tanner Groves, added a double-double with 10 points and 12 rebounds. Sophomore Tyler Robertson got his first start of the season and added 12 points. College of Idaho...
CHENEY-The third time wasn't a charm for EWU men's basketball's attempt to vanquish a PAC-12 opponent. The Eagles (0-3) fell to Oregon 69-52 Dec. 7 after hanging tough with Arizona but failing to hold a lead in a 70-67 defeat Dec. 5. The pair of defeats, coupled with a seasoning opening loss to Washington State on Nov. 28 71-68, meant the Eagles were unsuccessful in their three tries at claiming their first victory over a PAC-12 opponent since a 2017 victory at Stanford....
AIRWAY HEIGHTS - The Airway Heights Fire Department recently had to decide what to do with a 2001 Central States Fire Engine surplus. After presenting several options to council, council unanimously elected to donate the truck to Lincoln County Fire Protection District No. 7 in Wilbur at its study session Nov. 23. The Airway Heights council originally elected to surplus the truck in April 2019. It then went to state auction for nine months and didn't receive any bids, fire...
Editor’s note: This story is an update to an article titled “Airway Heights plans holiday events,” which was published in the Nov. 26 issue of the Cheney Free Press. AIRWAY HEIGHTS—The city confirmed previously reported plans for celebrating the holidays as a community while still following COVID-19 health protocols on the parks and recreation website this week, with some minor changes and updates to various details. The event, titled “Airway Heights Month-Long Winterfest,” features five activities throughout December fo...
MEDICAL LAKE — The traditional festival hosted by Re*Imagine Medical Lake involving hundreds of children getting their face painted in-person, doing crafts at booths and residents gathering for a tree-lighting ceremony won’t be a go this year due to COVID-19-caused restrictions. However, the organization is still able to put on a modified event Saturday, Dec. 12. The event, titled Re*Imagine Christmas, begins with a Stocking Stuffer 5K at Coney Island Park from 1 p.m. to 3 p... Full story
AIRWAY HEIGHTS — The city’s plans to expand transportation options just received a boost. The West Plains Connection project has been awarded a $2.5 million grant from the Transportation Improvement Board. The money will be used for Phase One of the project, which will link Garfield Road and South Hayford Road via 10th Avenue, a street grid section that doesn’t presently connect. The continuation of 10th Avenue would connect with the current 12th Avenue behind Walmart off South Hayford Road. The new route will have two trave...
MEDICAL LAKE—The school board unanimously approved a new replacement levy at its Nov. 24 meeting with an assessed value of $1.50 per $1,000 assessed property value. The levy, which would replace the current levy that’s around $1.38 per $1,000 assessed property value, moves to a public vote on Feb. 9, 2021. The total levy collection is what Medical Lake taxpayers will be voting on, with the $1.50 figure being an educated guess based on local property value and projected growth, superintendent Tim Ames confirmed. “We...
AIRWAY HEIGHTS—Council and city manager Albert Tripp discussed tweaking the way the city chooses its mayor at council’s Nov. 23 study session before Mayor Kevin Richey and councilmembers unanimously agreed that the tweak should occur and a ballot resolution should be filed in hopes of bringing said resolution to public vote in February. The tweak, which was first brought up to council by Richey in 2015 to allow for flexibility in the case of circumstances causing a council and/or mayoral vacancy, would change the process for...
MEDICAL LAKE--The district released a new plan for phasing students back to in-person learning today, Dec. 1. The new plan detailed when all grade levels would return; currently, only preschoolers through second graders have any form of in-person learning, aside from special populations such as special-needs children or those without reliable Internet access. Third graders will return Dec. 7 to Hallett and Michael Anderson Elementary schools. After winter break, fourth and fifth graders will return in-person Jan. 11. These...
MEDICAL LAKE—Budget season is in full force. While many municipalities grapple with budget shortfalls, Medical Lake’s proposed 2021 ending fund balance wouldn’t leave the city trying to operate out of a deficit. A first reading and public hearing for the budget was held at council’s Nov. 17 meeting. The first reading was approved unanimously. No public comment was given. The general fund would have projected revenues of $3,290,810 and expenditures of $2,465,488 for an ending fund balance of $825,322. Other expendi...
RENTON — The pandemic has struck another blow to local athletics. The WIAA voted to delay the start of winter sports to Feb. 1, 2021 and shorten each sports season to seven weeks apiece at its Nov. 17 meeting. Practices for winter sports season, the most prominent of which are basketball and wrestling, were originally scheduled to begin Dec. 28, with competitions coming shortly after. However, a surge of positive COVID-19 cases caused the WIAA to create another delay in an a...
AIRWAY HEIGHTS—The city is partnering with several community organizations to put on several pandemic-friendly virtual, drive-in or distanced events in December. Parks and Recreation and Community Services Director J.C. Kennedy shared four events that the city is planning. The events were in various stages of planning as of press time, so he had more details to share for some events than others. The city is partnering with the Airway Heights Kiwanis Club, The Heights Church, Dairy Queen, volunteer firefighters and Tammy M...
AIRWAY HEIGHTS — Like many municipalities across the country grappling with a struggling economy amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, the city faced revenue losses in 2020. As a result, developing the 2021 budget has been a challenge, a fact city manager Albert Tripp shared with council via a letter and at council’s legislative session Nov. 16. “We anticipate the City will end 2020 with 15%-30% less tax revenue than planned due to a reduction in revenues from sales taxes, admission taxes, hotel/motel lodging taxes, motor vehic...
MEDICAL LAKE--Highway 902 is down to one lane of alternating traffic at milepost 7 in town near Conoco and Subway after a 17-year-old female flipped a stolen purple Honda off the road into the Medical Lake Car Wash parking lot. Sergeant Tod Surdam of Washington State Patrol said he was making a routine traffic stop around 9:30 a.m. today when the female took off, going 23 miles per hour over the speed limit and topping off at 90 miles per hour. She then lost control and...
AIRWAY HEIGHTS—The Kalispel Tribe announced an expansion project that includes a new hotel wing with nearly 200 new rooms at Northern Quest Resort & Casino today, Nov. 23. Completion on the project is scheduled for 2023, according to a press release from the casino. The tribe plans to break ground in March 2021. “For the past several years, we’ve been running at consistently high occupancy in our hotel,” Northern Quest general manager Nick Pierre said in the press release. “While meetings and events business has taken a b...
AIRWAY HEIGHTS – When Mable Dunbar received a call from manager Jimmy Suckow that the purple 1994 Chevy pickup truck Cleone’s Closet Food Pantry uses to transport food was stolen on Oct. 20, she wasn’t happy. After all, the truck was the food pantry’s primary means of getting goods from Second Harvest Food Bank and grocery stores that donate food, such as Yoke’s and Walmart. The truck was also, on occasion, used to deliver food to needy people in the community. Suckow no...
FAIRCHILD AFB-Nov. 17 was the 92nd Air Bombardment Wing's 73rd birthday at Fairchild Air Force Base. To celebrate, the base hosted members of the media, including reporter Drew Lawson and publisher Roger Harnack of the Cheney Free Press, on a refueling flight on a KC-135 Stratotanker. The 92nd Air Bombardment Wing became the 92nd Air Refueling Wing in 1994 after several name changes to reflect the base's changing missions and remains so in present day. The experience began as...
MEDICAL LAKE—When 15-year-old Samuel Russell took up skating about 18 months ago, he realized there wasn’t a skate park in town where he and his skateboarding-inclined friends could safely recreate. So, the sophomore studying at Medical Lake High School decided to reach out and see if one could be built. “I talked to my dad, and he said that there used to be a skate park here, but it got shut down for different reasons,” Russell said. “I was thinking about it, and I was like, ‘well, there’s solutions to all of those (problems...
AIRWAY HEIGHTS – After a request for funding to help sponsor a roundabout at Highway 2 and Lawson Street was removed last week per council’s desire, the 2021 state legislative agenda was approved Nov. 16 at council’s legislative session. Council requested that the Highway 2 and Lawson Street roundabout request be removed out of concern that roundabouts weren’t the best solution to facilitate north/south vehicle flow at its Nov. 9 study session. The legislative agenda that was approved features five priorities, chief among w...
MEDICAL LAKE – Jessica Roberts announced her intentions to resign from city council at council's Nov. 3 meeting. Roberts is moving outside the municipality required for council members to live in after her family purchased property outside city limits. She said she hopes to make her resignation official by Jan. 1, which would make council's Dec. 15 meeting her last. However, that timing is dependent on whether her current home sells in time or not. Roberts has been involved w...
AIRWAY HEIGHTS – The city has a new prosecutor representing it in criminal court cases. Andrew Filak comes to Airway Heights by way of Gonzaga University following a short stint as a patrol officer in Ohio. This is the first prosecution job for Filak in Washington following an internship with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Spokane, where he worked in the criminal division while completing his degree at Gonzaga University. There, he helped with cases with federal mis...
AIRWAY HEIGHTS – The most expensive request council discussed for the state legislative agenda was for $3.8 million per year over a four-year period to help the city construct a new alternate water supply infrastructure that has been needed since the infamous May 2017 incident where PFOS chemicals infiltrated the city’s water supply. “An alternate water supply is the most cost-effective option for providing the city with a safe and sustainable supply of drinking water,” the state legislative agenda request draft reads....
AIRWAY HEIGHTS –The city has needs it would like to be funded with approval from state legislature. Council held a discussion on what exact needs should be addressed at its Nov. 9 study session. Spoiler: Roundabouts weren’t a popular idea. City manager Albert Tripp shared a draft of six legislative agenda requests. The biggest discussion came over the city’s desire to request $750,000 in transportation funding for a new roundabout at Highway 2 and Lawson Street. The city has already secured $350,000 for the project. Many...
Snow covers the monument erected to local service members at Cheney’s Veterans Park. The monument acknowledges those who served in conflicts dating back to the Civil War and as recent as Afghanistan....
